Stanislas Wawrinka

The most awaited finals of Chennai Open ended up with Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka’s remarkable 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 win over Belgian Xavier Malisse on Sunday.

“Mailsse was playing really well. It was a good fight. But in the second set, he started to tire and I became more aggressive. This is a good win for me just before the Australian Open”, Wawrinka said at his winner’s address, while the runner up, Malisse attributed his defeat and decrease in intensity to tired legs. “It was tough for me to play three long sets. I made some shots, I missed some. That’s tennis. I’m just happy I played good aggressive tennis through the tournament”, said the Belgian, who next plays at the Auckland Open.

Game proceedings:

The final match of the men’s singles was moving at an unpredictable pace. The initial set moved its cards against Wawrinka. But he came back at the eight game. Serving the pressure mounting 5-6, Wawrinka saved two set points. But at the second set, Malisse broke him at the third game and held the game within his hands.

But then, the successive course of the game, turned towards the Swiss. Breaks of Malisse serve, in the second and sixth game, set him up at 5-1. And at the crucial  title winning serve, Wawrinka obtained his second match point, to clinch the tile, after a two hours and 14 minutes strife.

At the prize distribution ceremony, Wawrinka was awarded the $68,850 winner’s cheque.

Men’s doubles:

Valiant Indian duo Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi bore away the bell with a 6-2, 6-7(3), 10-7 win over the freshers Robin Haase and David Martin to safeguard their Chennai Open title. This is a very memorable title to them as this is their first title on playing together after a long gap of about six years.

In their 34th Tour final together, Paes was his usual self up front while Bhupathi managed the baseline. While the first set was easily clinched by the Indians, the second was at fire. The Dutch-American pair even looked favourites, having run up a three-point lead in the super tie-break, but experience lasted over youth in the end.

Plans to upgrade Chennai Open:

Addressing the media, the chairman of the organizing committee for the Aircel Chennai Open, Karti P. Chidambaram, said that plans to upgrade the tournament to an ATP 500 would have to wait until 2013.

“In 2013, ATP will recast their calendar. But we’ll have to upgrade our infrastructure. Right now we have only one show-court. We’ll need to build up another, so we’ll need to approach the government”, he said.

Managing the schedule to avoid matches going late into the night was also something that is being considered. “We’ll consider that, it’s a valid point. We also have to keep the weather in mind, as the players and the ATP are both comfortable with the late kick-off”, he said.

Tags: ATP 250, ATP 500, Australian Open, Belgian, Chennai Open, Stanislas Wawrinka, Swiss, Tennis, Xavier Malisse